In the last month of 2021, new car sales from the joint venture camp seem to be more interesting than in the autonomous camp, because in the previous months, the joint venture brands have put several new models on the market, covering various price points, classes and types, and showed a certain sales performance in December.
Among these new cars, the most eye-catching is undoubtedly Toyota, in addition to the Asiatic Lion and Lingshang listed in the first half of the year, GAC Toyota's Highlander also completed the replacement in the middle of last year, and FAW Toyota immediately brought Highlander's sister model - Crown Road Release two months later. By the end of October, the medium and large MPV race that was popular in the United States was introduced into domestic production by GAC Toyota, and half a month later, FAW Toyota's new SUV Lingfang opened up a new market segment, and GAC Toyota's sister version of Weisa was also poised to go.
Outside of Toyota, the Versailles C5 X, which circumference regards as the last attempt of the ship, finally achieved a major breakthrough in December after months of difficult climbing. In addition, it is worth mentioning that there is Buick's Velang Pro, Ford's EVOS, Kia's Jawa...
The joint venture camp with a relatively solid structure, the new car stage in 2021 is not deserted, and then we will look at what kind of report card they have handed over in the last month of 2021.
FAW Toyota Lingfang
Insured in December: 4212 vehicles
Listing time: November 18, 2021
Although the overall sales scale is not as good as Volkswagen, but Toyota is the strongest brand in the joint venture camp in the past two years, in order to further expand the share, North and South Toyota in the first half of last year respectively launched Lingshang and Asiatic Lion, to fill the gap in the A+ class sedan market, but the sales performance is not ideal, Asiatic Lion average monthly sales of 3,000, Lingshang half-year cumulative sales have not reached 5,000.
This setback made people realize that even if the brand is as strong as Toyota, not all new cars can sell well. However, Toyota's pace of filling the gap in the market has not stopped, and Lingfang, which was listed on November 18, is a chess piece laid by FAW Toyota between Rongfang and Crown Road.
21.18-29.78 million, the overall price of Lingfang is about 40,000 yuan higher than Rongfang, although the styling style is very different, but from the exact same 2690mm wheelbase, it can be seen that Lingfang and Rongfang essentially originate from the same platform, and the power combination of 2.0L+CVT and 2.5L+E-CVT dual-engine hybrid used by the two is also completely consistent.
Specifically looking at the price, Lingfang from 21.18-25.98 million are 2.0L two-wheel drive version, and Rongfang's 2.0L version, from 204,800 began to be equipped with four-wheel drive, and the entry threshold of the dual-engine hybrid version is only 225,800, and in Lingfang, it is only the low-end level of the 2.0L version.
From the comparison of the above mechanical specifications, The cost performance of Lingfang is obviously inferior to that of Rongfang, but it achieved the actual sales of 4212 vehicles in the first full month after listing, and more than half of the sales were concentrated in the three dual engine hybrid configurations, and the main sales price ranging from 230,000 to 300,000 yuan.
If Lingfang is regarded as a high-end version of Rongfang, it is difficult to understand the enthusiasm of consumers for this car, in fact, on the second day of Lingfang's listing, Lexus' second-generation NX was officially listed, and combined with the overall design, especially the lines on the side of the body, it will be found that Lingfang is not a high-end version of Rongfang, but more like the OEM Toyota's NX:
Toyota Rongfang
Toyota Lingfang
Lexus NX
However, unlike Lingfang, the entry-level powertrain of the new generation of NX is not 2.0L+CVT, but a higher specification of 2.5L+8AT, and the power parameters of the dual-engine hybrid version are also higher. However, the starting price of NX is as high as 318,800, and the price threshold of the hybrid version of the bar has reached 355,800, which is 100,000 yuan higher than the overall price of Lingfang, so the main range of Lingfang and NX is completely staggered.
So from another angle, the Lexus NX, which treats LingFang as an OEM version, its cost performance is instantly highlighted. In any case, Lingfang has made a good start, and the sister model from GAC Toyota, Weisa, was also officially listed not long ago, and the two cars are expected to further expand Toyota's share of the market of more than 250,000 yuan in the future 2022.
Toyota Syna
Insured in December: 935 vehicles
Listing time: October 30, 2021
Although it has been listed at the end of October, the first batch of data was not released until January 2022. What is a bit surprising is that December is already the second full month after the launch of Xena, and its number of insured vehicles in that month was only 935.
Prior to this, Highlander was the most serious price increase among Toyota's domestic models, and after the replacement in June last year, it ushered in a small climax of price increases, with a range of 20,000-30,000 yuan. However, the price increase did not affect Highlander's sales, and after the replacement in June, the car sales increased month by month, exceeding 10,000 units in October last year, and then continued to rise, and as recently as December, the number of insured units reached 13,000 units. Before that, the previous generation of Highlander rarely had monthly sales of more than 10,000.
Under such a momentum, the image of the more high-end Sai Na, after the listing of the price increase is more violent, a variety of cash, decoration of the price increase once reached 70,000 yuan, even the entry-level version of the naked car price is as high as 400,000 yuan. In this context, what kind of sales can be obtained by Sai Na with a main sales price of more than 400,000 yuan has become the focus of attention.
Earlier this month, Toyota released its 2021 sales figures, which mentioned that the wholesale sales of Xena in December reached 2791 vehicles, but according to the data on the amount of insurance, The Syna sold only 935 vehicles that month. No matter which data it is, it is far from the hot scene we expected.
At this time, the Internet has come out of the news that dealers have stopped selling Xena,but still have poor sales, but this still cannot prove that the demand for Xena is weak, or the markup has ended, the production capacity of this car is undoubtedly still in the improvement stage, and it is difficult to conclude whether the current poor sales are limited by production capacity.
However, from another point of view, the large-size MPV developed by Xena itself for the US market has not yet had a precedent of big sales in the Chinese market, even if it is similarly positioned Buick GL8, it is mainly due to the needs of business scenes, and the image of Xena is more inclined to home. And the GL8's body width is significantly narrower, and urban travel will also compete with such models to be more flexible.
At present, in the early stage of Xena's listing, it has indeed suffered some unexpected setbacks, but whether its price increase can really end completely, or it needs to be followed up for two or three months before it dares to draw conclusions.
Kia Jawa
Insured in December: 710 vehicles
Listing time: September 13, 2021
Since we talked about Xena, kia Jawa, which has a similar positioning, has to be mentioned again.
At present, in the domestic market, Jawa is the only real same level, the same type, direct competitors of Xena, if the prospects of Xena are still difficult to conclude, Jiahua, which was listed in September last year, has basically shown its sales potential after three full months.
In the last month of last year, The number of vehicles insured by Jiahua reached 710 vehicles, compared with 462 and 558 vehicles in october and November, respectively. According to this trend, even if The Ka Wah still maintains a small growth, the final limit is expected to be around 1,000 vehicles.
Unlike Xena, Jiahua did not have the impact of mark-ups and insufficient capacity supply, its price range of 28.89-33.99 million, the entry threshold was only 20,000 yuan lower than the competition, but its top version was only priced at 339,900, equivalent to the sub-low version of Xena.
However, it is worth mentioning that in the current small sales volume of Jiahua, the top version of 339,900 accounts for about half, which shows that this car has attracted a certain number of high-budget customers, among which there may also be some customers who are dissatisfied with the Xena markup and switch camps.
Ka Wah cannot take on the task of boosting sales, but for Kia, whose share is shrinking, the sales of hundreds of Ka Wah vehicles still have some morale boosting effect. After all, in addition to Jawa, Kia's market of more than 200,000 yuan is already a blank.
Ford EVOS
Insured in December: 1573 vehicles
Listing time: November 19, 2021
In the new car sales inventory in November, Xiaobian mentioned the Versailles C5 X launched by Citroën, and at the same time, the Ford brand also launched a new crossover model with high hopes last year - EVOS.
The Versailles C5 X has basically gained a foothold, and sales have continued to rise after listing, reaching 4172 units in December, becoming the main force with the highest monthly sales of the Citroën brand. The Ford EVOS, which is positioned as a medium-sized level but has a price range much higher than that of the Versailles C5 X, naturally faces greater challenges after listing.
Sales were released in December, and evos reached 1573 vehicles in the first full month after the launch, which is another figure that is inconspicuous in the overall market, but quite brilliant for the brand itself.
EVOS starting threshold reached 225,800, the top price of 257,800, the price coverage is very small, but also shows that the sales it has achieved are also concentrated between 220,000-260,000 yuan, considering the positioning of EVOS's very personalized coupe SUV, EVOS's start can already be regarded as quite successful.
In fact, in the first customer base of EVOS, more than half of the ST-Line versions with 257,800 were selected, which was achieved under the premise of new cars on the market without discounts. At present, Ford EVOS has no direct competitors in the price range, and the indirect competition relationship is weak, if Ford will make preferential concessions in the future, the sales potential of this car is still worth looking forward to.
Buick Veyron Pro
Insured in December: 6652 vehicles
Listing time: September 10, 2021
Until 2019, the Veyron car series has been an important sales pillar of Buick, and sales in the Buick car lineup are second only to Yinglang. However, after the full replacement of 1.0T and 1.3T three-cylinder engines in September 2019, Veyron suffered a more serious sales setback than the Yinglang three-cylinder replacement, with sales falling below 100,000 units that year, a sharp drop of nearly half compared with 2018, and further falling to less than 30,000 vehicles in 2020, becoming a niche model in the compact family car market.
By 2021, Veyron's monthly sales have fallen below a thousand vehicles, and Buick has finally replaced it, launching the Veyron Pro in September, and abandoning the three-cylinder model of the old model, using a new 1.5T four-cylinder engine, and more sporty transformation in appearance and interior, and began to take a clear dynamic route.
After the initial sales after the listing, the number of vehicles was not satisfactory, with only 2689 vehicles in October and only 2972 vehicles in November, but in December, the number of risks on the Veyron Pro increased sharply to 6652, and finally showed signs of coming out of the decline.
Whether Veyron Pro can succeed is crucial to Buick's car series, although Yinglang can maintain an average of more than 20,000 vehicles per month, but the price is a larger discount, its main sales price has actually dropped to 8-9 million yuan, becoming a direct competitor to Geely Emgrand, Changan Yidong and other independent models, and in the 100,000-150,000 yuan price of the car market, Buick in addition to the just listed Veyron Pro, almost no sense of existence.
At present, the preferential range of Veyron Pro is about 15,000 yuan, and the main sales range is 120,000-140,000 yuan, under such a discount, it can get more than 6,000 vehicles, which is already valuable for Buick. The bargaining power of the Buick brand has declined year by year in recent years, and if the Veyron Pro is successful, it may become the beginning of Buick's restructuring of the price system.